Mid Month Recap...

It's hard to believe that we are already halfway through the month of July. We have been so busy this month the days have flown by.  I will start this recap by showing off our kitchen update.

Before photo: Standard granite back splash with lovely stains on the painted wall behind sink and stove. We have repainted that wall several times but some stains just bleed right through. Yuck!

The halfway point, hubby is working super hard!

The finished product! I'm in love! It is so nice that now when I boil over spaghetti sauce and it splatters on the wall I can just wipe it away!

The black splash ties in with the counter tops and cabinets wonderfully and it has really brightened up the kitchen.

In between tiling and grouting I did manage to get hubby out of the house for a little 4th of July celebrating. We met up with some friends and their kiddos to start the holiday weekend. Our city has a little celebration in the center of town that we checked out.

Here is the little one giving the chick fil a moo cow a bi high five!

We also overran a very small burger place in town. They were not expecting a big crowd having just opened a few days earlier. 6 adults and 5 kids really filled the restaurant.

We were all starved, our new friend Addison was so hungry she decided to taste the pepper! Yum!

Amelia wondered if the food would ever arrive?

Chris was just wishing the restaurant had more than 1 high chair!

The food did finally arrive and it was yummy. Hubby decide to test the chili cheeseburger which arrived looking quite dangerous but was apparently very yummy because the next time I looked at his plate it was completely gone!

The next evening we ventured out to see the fireworks at the last minute. Which worked out great because we were far enough away to see them but not have all of the loud noise. We were worried how the little one would react but she was mesmerized!

We celebrated hubby's birthday last week. My folks drove in to drop off my sister who was visiting from Minnesota. Mom brought these festive Thomas the train cupcakes to celebrate with. Too cute and way too yummy!

Hubby was excited to be the proud recipient of a Handy Manny toy boat set complete with a miniature "Turner" the tool.

Also to celebrate hubby's birthday and also my sister's recent birthday I had planned for a baby sitter (thanks Amanda!) to come so we could go paddle boarding! I rented two paddle boards and a kayak for us to play around with. We had a ball! None of us had ever tried paddle boarding before but I think we all did really well for beginners. Here is hubby catching a wave. We had a good laugh after having the picture's developed because the waves really did seem bigger when we out there but looked like tiny ripples in the pics!

Here is sister looking professional...

Until she dropped her paddle. Hubby luckily was able to quickly retrieve it!

Here I am in the kayak, which I totally fell in love with. We actually own a kayak but it is a sit inside kind and is not nearly as comfortable or easy to use.

While sister was visiting, not only did she completely entertain the little one but she completed an awesome dress for the little one! Here she is looking completely frustrated by my sewing machine which was on the fritz.

The dress is fantastic. She got the pattern from a book, written by a friend of hers, called One-Yard Wonders.  Here the little one models it while holding another gift from her aunt "Fred" the wiggly worm.

While my sister was here we had the opportunity to take the little one to meet some horses. I had inquired to a local boarding farm about when it would be age appropriate for her to ride since she is fascinated with horses and cows and was offered the chance to come out and meet some horses. Little one got to pet, brush and feed treats to 2 different horses. She had a great time and didn't seem the slightest bit worried about being next to such a large animal. I hope to take her back to visit again soon.

Well that about wraps up the first part of the month, we have been having a lot of fun and look forward to seeing what the next few weeks may bring. Hopefully we can sneak in lots of beach days! :)